Our Opinion: 'The One Campaign'

Grace Mission seeks help for latest outreach

Grace Mission's ministry of outreach to the Frenchtown community has been well documented.

The Episcopal church at Bronough and Brevard streets numbers many people who are poor or homeless among its members. But for a congregation that has so many needs, it also has much to give. The church offers services ranging from a soup kitchen to showers. It has Bible study for adults and after-school care for needy children. Members walk around the neighborhood on weekends, picking up trash or handing out water. They even came up with $2,000 and volunteers for a Habitat for Humanity project.

"We're a church of homeless people," Pastor Amanda Nickles says. Still, she tells her parishioners that they are commanded to go out and help others. "You can still make a difference as well."

The latest outreach involves bringing healthy food to the Springfield Apartments public-housing complex on Joe Louis Street. It's quite an effort involving the Tallahassee Housing Authority, America's Second Harvest of the Big Bend (with which Grace Mission has worked for 16 years) and Farm Share, a program that helps get surplus produce to those in need.

Grace Mission picks up the food on Friday in a 26-foot refrigerated truck and delivers it on Saturday.

Pastor Amanda, as she prefers to be called, has dubbed this effort "The One Campaign." She is looking for churches willing to donate just their time for one day: one church, one Saturday, once a year. About 15 students from the Methodist ministry at Florida State got the ball rolling, volunteering last week.

There's a job for anybody. They need about five strong people to load the truck on Friday (OK, technically it's two days), and then 10 to 15 for the Saturday. Some will be doing heavy lifting, packing bags with food; others will be handling "intake" (taking names and other information) and helping people with their food requests.

The next day that help will be needed is July 20. You can find more as well as contact information at http://www.gracemission.net.

The goal is to have this be a pilot program and eventually expand it to all five public-housing complexes in Tallahassee. That's optimistic, to say the least. But as Grace Mission Church demonstrates, success follows when everybody has something to give.

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Our Opinion: 'The One Campaign'

Grace Mission's ministry of outreach to the Frenchtown community has been well documented.